Chapter 51

On the Inner Fire

Your first question about that little flame, what is it? — Answer: When God grants it, then you will know. Without tasting the sweetness of honey, one cannot know what that sweetness is. So it is here too! It is revealed by constant feeling toward God.

You explained well with the burning glass how the inner fire is kindled. Do it that way.

How to stand before the Lord with mind and heart? — As one stands before a ruler, so here too one must. The prophet speaks: I have set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand and so forth (Ps. 15:8). In the present state, this foreseeing appears already upon receiving the fire.

To ask for this gift is not contrary to God’s will. That with some this ended badly—grace is not to blame, but the one who received it and did not preserve it.

You ask: ‘Is this not the flame, when you stand at prayer with reverence and feeling of your own nothingness?’ — This is connected with the flame; but the flame is inseparable from it. The flame comes without contrivance. And almost always through the mysteries of confession and holy communion.

(Letter 913. Issue 5, p. 193)